<Directory /foo/bar>
# This is the standard authentication stuff
AuthName "Foo Bar Authentication"
AuthType Basic
# The following is needed when you will authenticate
# via /etc/passwd as well as authorize via /etc/group.
# Apache::AuthenPasswd is a separate module.
PerlAuthenHandler Apache::AuthenPasswd
# Set REMOTE_GROUP CGI env variable to authorized
# group. Defaults to no.
PerlSetVar SetRemoteGroup yes || no
# Standard require stuff, users, groups and
# "valid-user" all work OK
require user username1 username2 ...
require group groupname1 groupname2 ...
require valid-user
PerlAuthzHandler Apache::AuthzPasswd
</Directory>
These directives can also be used in the <Location> directive or in
an .htaccess file.

= head1 DESCRIPTION

For starters, this module could just as well be named Apache::AuthzGroup, since it has nothing to do with /etc/passwd, but rather works with /etc/group. However, I prefer this name in order to maintain the association with Apache::AuthenPasswd, since chances are they will be used together.

(SPEEVES NOTE: This module does not seem to work without some sort of Authentication module used in conjunction with it... I haven't looked extensively, but my testing always failed with a:

couldn't check user. No user file?

error in the apache logs when I didn't have a module working at the authentication level.)

This perl module is designed to work with mod_perl and the Apache::AuthenPasswd module by Demetrios E. Paneras (dep@media.mit.edu). It is a direct adaptation (i.e. I modified the code) of Michael Parker's (parker@austx.tandem.com) Apache::AuthenSmb module (which also included an authorization routine).

The module calls getgrnam using each of the require group elements as keys, until a match with the (already authenticated) user is found.

For completeness, the module also handles require user and require valid-user directives.

= head2 PerlSetVar SetRemoteGroup

Set to "yes" to set the CGI env variable REMOTE_GROUP to the group of the authorized user. Defaults to "no".

= head2 Apache::AuthenPasswd vs. Apache::AuthzPasswd

I've taken "authentication" to be meaningful only in terms of a user and password combination, not group membership. This means that you can use Apache::AuthenPasswd with the require user and require valid-user directives. In the /etc/passwd and /etc/group context I consider require group to be an "authorization" concern. I.e., group authorization consists of establishing whether the already authenticated user is a member of one of the indicated groups in the require group directive. This process may be handled by Apache::AuthzPasswd. Admittedly, AuthzPasswd is a misnomer, but I wanted to keep AuthenPasswd and AuthzPasswd related, if only by name.

I welcome any feedback on this module, esp. code improvements, given that it was written hastily, to say the least.